Kate & Pro - 7/9 (amazing lesson!)

I. Love. My. Trainer. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

So of course Pro put on his best behaving personality show today...tried to make a liar out of me...but Gayle obviously knows that he's not like that all the time. Her working student came to watch the lesson, so thankfully he was good. Today's lesson was a lot of mini lightbulb moments for me, so writing them down will actually be really helpful.

First we discussed "too much bend". How it's necessary when he's being naughty, to correct him, but he gets fussy because he didn't like it...but then again, I wouldn't have to do it if he wasn't naughty in the first place. So she adjusted me to "appropriate" bend (aka, "straight"...the horse isn't straight unless they're bent) and I got a feel for that. Some counterbend at the walk to really get me feeling my outside rein and have him "in" that.

We also worked on getting me to GIVE my inside rein. Which is hard, because for the first few months of his retraining, the inside rein was my #1 Tool to gain submission. But Gayle pointed out that we can't very well go on forever like that. However, it's habit, so it's hard to break. She suggested I bribe Erik into standing in the arena and watching my inside rein so he can scold me if I don't give it up. ;)

This all transferred into the trot, where he was still very good. Then, as a prelude to leg-yields, we did figure eights at the posting trot and focused on GIVING my inside rein and at each cross-over/change of bend, giving my inside rein while pushing him to the outside. Well, he just puffed up and went around cute as can be. *#@(% it was that easy!?

After that, LEG YIELDS!!!! Woohoo!!! So it's kinda hard to explain, but I did them on a diagonal line. So I would circle going right, and then when I got to the wall, instead of continuing the circle, I angled down a diagonal line that was sort of tangental to the circle. And then leg yield left off that line. After a few good steps, I would turn left and then be circling left, and repeat this all in the other direction. I would start the leg yield (let's say by going left) by opening up my left rein (to give him a place to go, Gayle said), and NOT pulling back on the inside rein like he wants me to. A kick from my inside if necessary, and then he would pleasantly leg yield over. She said he manipulates me into not giving the inside rein because when I do, he can be lazy with his HQs and just yield his shoulders. Naughty!

This was all done sitting, so I got some nice practice sitting trot. Anyway, he was fantastic. After the lesson, her working student said he was the "cutest damn thing she'd ever seen" and she was really impressed when she found out he was 16. She also said that it's impressive that we've only been doing this (working with Gayle to rebuild basics) since September - that most horses take two years to make progress like this from a state like that. She even said (**proud mommy moment here!!** that in watching his leg yield, she can tell he's going to have a good passage someday!!! :) :) So the three of us did talk about his future and Gayle said that besides learning how to reeeeeally balance at the canter (since he does have a long neck), he's physically capable of doing everything through GP (not all equally, like most horses except those who are Olympic level, but still). It's mental. Most horses, even if they can DO the stuff, can't do that intense focus for the whole GP test. But with Pro...yeah he can be a snot, but I think he's intelligent enough to be able to handle it, and maybe that intense challenge would hold his attention!! We'll see. :)

He got a nice big carrot today and lots of hugs from Mom. :)